United Airlines shouldn’t have messed with Dave Carroll. When the U.S. airline decided they wouldn’t compensate the Sons of Maxwell co-principal for damaging his guitar during a flight — prolonged communications between the two parties failed to resolve the matter — the Halifax songwriter informed them of his game plan. “I told them I was going to write three songs and put them on the Internet with video and try to get a million hits within the next year,” Carroll recalls.

When he finally posted “United Breaks Guitars” on YouTube in July, Carroll reached his target — within four days. “By Friday, there were a million hits, and two million hits by Sunday,” he says. Suddenly United found itself in the middle of a PR nightmare.

As for Carroll, he was suddenly a cause célèbre. His CD sales exploded as his career took off in unexpected directions. “In addition to the music stuff, I’ve also done some public speaking on social media and customer service,” he says. Furthermore, CTV hired him to write a song and star in one of their “Local TV Matters” campaign commercials, and for his third song — “United Breaks Guitars 3” — Nashville Dobro god Jerry Douglas agreed to play on the song for free.

“Seven months ago, if I had called Jerry Douglas and asked him to play, I bet you he would have said no,” says Carroll, who estimates he may have reached as many as 100 million people with his songs, videos and resulting “media frenzy.”

Such is the potential viral impact of such social media hubs as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, three online portal technologies that are changing the way songwriters and musicians do business. By posting videos, tour schedules, song streams and personal messages, artists are reaching their fan base more quickly and more spontaneously than ever.

“In the old days it was a staple gun and a bunch of posters that you put up on poles,” notes Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond’s Tom Wilson, who uses Facebook religiously to promote the 160 gigs yearly he performs with the bands. “Facebook is direct communication with people, which is what we’ve been going after, to get human contact with fans who get your music. That’s really what this is — just letting people know where you are.

“The upside is that it’s put marketing in the control of artists. If you have enough drive and you’re smart enough and you know what you want, you can use it to your benefit.”

Wilson says the goal is to get people to his concerts. “To be totally honest, every little square on Facebook looks like $40 to me — a CD and a T-shirt,” he says. “Everyone who comes to a show and likes the music is going to buy a CD. That’s how I’m able to keep going.”

It’s also an inexpensive self-promotional tool. Download a few performance videos on YouTube and you have the potential of becoming the next Justin Bieber, the Canadian teen sensation who parlayed his online contributions into an Island Def Jam recording contract and whose current YouTube views number over 90 million. Register on Facebook and you can invite viewers to become friends or fans. Use the 140 characters on Twitter to tell folks about your up-to-the-minute thoughts, career developments and new releases.

Folk songwriter Rob Szabo says Facebook and Twitter are both very effective in helping to fill in touring calendar gaps. “I’ll be on the road and I’ll tweet that I’ve got a day off between Canmore and Prince George,” he says. “Then I’ll ask, ‘Would anybody like to book a house concert?’ I’ll get a bunch of replies and my tours will end up being 27 one-nighters in 29 days. I can tweet 140 characters, and that gets more people out to a show at night than any other promo I do. You start to feel what the power of that is.”

However, Szabo finds that an even bigger advantage is retaining his integrity. “You’re not having to make artistic compromises,” he says. “You’re driving the bus, and the people who are with you are invested in what you’re doing and they’re part of the process.”

Convenience via interconnectivity is a strong Twitter motivator for Vancouver singer and songwriter Coco Love Alcorn. “There are always different websites that need constant updates, so I have Twitter linked to my MySpace and my Facebook, as well as a Twitter feed on my MySpace page,” says Alcorn. “I can put out the word very quickly about something on my cell phone, and it goes everywhere. That’s pretty handy.”

As with any technology, there are a couple of new apps available to make life easier for musicians. For a modest premium, Involver (www.involver.com) can stream a customized playlist on your Facebook page, include tour dates and allow fans to share music files on their news feeds. Over at DEQQ (www.deqq.com) — co-developed by David Usher — you can create your own real-time social channel.

There will undoubtedly be more, and Dave Carroll insists the prevalence of social media will yield positive results. “It’s very liberating,” he says. “Social media have democratized music.”

Nick Krewen is a frequent contributor to Words + Music magazine